A heated political clash unfolded at the monthly session of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation in Jamaica on Thursday, sparked by a sitting councillor’s sharp rebuke of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president over public allegations of sexual activity in hurricane-run school shelters.
The controversy traces back to comments JTA President Mark Malabver made earlier this week during the opening of the JTA Education Conference in Hanover. Malabver, who also serves as principal of Yallahs High School in St Thomas and previously held the role of People’s National Party (PNP) candidate and caretaker for the St Thomas Western constituency, told delegates the union had received credible reports that displaced shelter residents were engaging in sexual acts where children could see them at some western Jamaican schools still being used as emergency housing months after Hurricane Melissa hit the island.
Though the schools named in Malabver’s claims are located in western Jamaica, the issue landed on the agenda of the eastern St Thomas municipal meeting due to Malabver’s deep professional and political ties to the parish. Dean Jones, a Jamaica Labour Party councillor representing the Trinityville Division, opened the floor with a blistering attack on the JTA leader, accusing him of exploiting his union position for political gain.
Jones argued that proper protocol required Malabver to escalate any confidential claims of misconduct to relevant state bodies — specifically the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Local Government — before airing the unconfirmed allegations publicly. “I want to say to the president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association that, if you’re seeking political mileage, you need to look elsewhere. You cannot politicise the office that you’re sitting in,” Jones charged. “He’s one of the worst presidents that the JTA has ever seen in the history of this country, and for that reason, you need to apologise to the nation for that statement that you have made about what happened in the shelter. You should have done due diligence. You should have called the person that is in charge before you go publicly and say these things.”
Jones emphasized that neither he nor his party condone the alleged behavior, but insisted due process must take priority over public grandstanding. “We agree, we are not condoning what you said happened in the school, in the shelter, we are against it. But at the end of the day, due process must follow. Go and do the right thing. Speak to the relevant authority before you come public,” he added.
Jones’ remarks drew an immediate pushback from Hubert Williams, a PNP councillor representing the White Horses Division in St Thomas, who countered that dismissing the claims out of hand ignores the far more urgent question of their veracity and the ongoing disruption of education from prolonged use of schools as hurricane shelters.
Williams noted that months after Hurricane Melissa displaced hundreds of residents across the island, schools should be returned to their core function of teaching and learning, rather than continuing to operate under disruptive shift systems or with entire classrooms blocked off for shelter use. “Where we would have a problem is if what Mr Malabver said was not factual. But I think once he is saying something, we can’t prove that what he’s saying is not factual… if these statements are factual, then the people of Jamaica should know about it,” Williams argued. “It is my honest opinion that the school must be restored to its original function. And if these things are going on, I think what we should do as a people, is since Mr Malabver made his statement, do the necessary investigation to find out if Mr Malabver is just trying to cause trouble. Because these are worrying things that we should be really concerned about, if it’s true, more than just shake them out like that.”
In his original remarks, Malabver called the reported incidents “deeply troubling” and warned that the prolonged use of school campuses as emergency shelters has created learning environments that are unsafe and unsuitable for students. Following the public controversy, Jamaica’s Ministry of Education confirmed it had not received any formal complaint about the alleged incidents prior to Malabver’s public comments, but has launched a formal investigation into the claims to determine their accuracy.